I am bugged beyond all reason to hear that there's a rule that you can't target government high-ups during the Purge. It massively undercuts the whole premise - if all law is rescinded during the Purge, that kind of has to mean all law, otherwise you're violating the fundamental gimmick of the franchise.

Then again, I'm also the sort of person who wonders why all banks and businesses don't suddenly collapse on Purge Night because a lot of white collar workers spend the evening sat in their poor people-proof bunkers embezzling all the money they can get their sticky little hands on.

Yeah, the "no government officials" thing was clearly invented for Election Year, just so it could then be rescinded as part of the plot.

Election Year also addresses the bank thing, by claiming that they move all of their money to secure, undisclosed locations. Which wouldn't actually stop a whole swathe of financial crimes from going down, but I think the writers were operating on this idea that banks keep the entirety of their assets in a big vault at all times.

Yeah, I'm not seeing how that stops someone with sufficient access to just hack a bank's accounts ledger and give themselves an account with $99999999999999999999999999999999.99 in it, or whatever.

I mean, maybe they revert that the next day on the assumption that it's illegal... but what basis do they have for doing so? Doesn't that undermine the Purge?

You presumably can't bring criminal or civil complaints against someone who, say, blows up your car or hacks your leg off during the Purge, so what basis do the financial authorities have for undoing anything you get up to during the Purge?

I guess they *could* set things up so absolutely no commercial transactions within, into, or out of the US can happen on Purge Night.

The annual tanking of the economy as a result feels like it wouldn't quite be worth it.

(For that matter, can you imagine the number the Purge does on the insurance industry? Either your insurance covers stuff that happens during the Purge - in which case your premiums are going to be absurd because the odds of bad shit happening are radically increased for everyone - or your insurance doesn't cover you for the most reliably dangerous night of the year, in which case it's worthless and the industry tanks.)

If I remember correctly, Purge insurance is in fact brought up a few times as a booming industry, although how exactly it works is never explained.

Maybe the reason the franchise never moved beyond murder is because any other crime would force you to think more about how the Purge actually works, and you'd realize pretty quickly that it doesn't make any sense.

There is presumably also an industry in paid mercenaries to protect you or valuable property from Purgers - with their payment held in escrow, to be released only the day after Purge day, void if you/your property gets damaged.

Which raises the spectre of insurance companies hiring private armies for Purge Night in order to protect policy owners' lives and property - because proactively preventing anything bad happening to them is cheaper than paying out on the policies.